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Guidance and Counseling

Notes client. Usually the defense strategies fall under two basic kinds of manipulative devices: (1) the
client may take a helpless attitude and get the counselor to do what he wants him to do, and (2) the
counsellee may arouse sympathy and attention and avoid unpleasant tasks. By adopting either of
these devices the client successfully wards off the Counseling relationship. He prevents it from
breaking through his outer defenses. If, however, the counselor succeeds in establishing this bridge
then he can establish optimal rapport which is sustained through the entire counseling process.
Stage III: The third step in counseling is to aid the expression of feelings and clarification of
problems. In psychoanalytic terminology this is similar to ‘catharsis’. In a sense, it is a ventilation of
feelings and the client experiences a feeling of relief consequent to the release of tension. There is an
awareness of relief from emotional stress obtained through the communication of problems. A
client may often obtain a certain amount of courage in trying this technique with other feelings as
well. In this process, previously tied up emotions are released and can be used constructively. But
this process has certain limitations. The client may obtain a false sense of the resolution of conflict—
ventilating his feelings may relieve him of tension and he may very well mistake it for a state of
resolution of tension.

The expression of feelings not only helps in the release of emotional tensions, but
can also help in clarifying problems. It is in this sense that the expression of feeling
is of momentous value in the counseling process.

Stage IV: The next stags emprises the exploration of deeper feelings. We have said in the preceding
section that the client may mistake ventilation of feelings for resolution of feelings. It is necessary
that the counselor should not be content with a superficial view of the client’s feelings. If therapeutic
help is the objective, the counselor must try to explore the deeper feelings and conflicting situations
which have not only to be brought to the surface but also satisfactorily resolved without damaging
the individual’s personality. This step, therefore, involves analysis.
Stage V: The preceding stage logically leads to the next stage, comprising the integration process.
A proper appreciation of the feelings and underlying polarities can help diffuse emotional tension
and the counselor can help the client see each feeling in its proper perspective without either unduly
exhibiting fear or withdrawal or showing lack of concern. This stage, therefore, consists of working
in close harmony with the client with due understanding regard and sympathy for the client’s
innermost feelings. In the course of such a process the counselor is able to synthesize and integrate
counsellee potentialities, needs and aspirations and direct them towards appropriate goals.
Stage VI: The next stage, though not spelt out very clearly, is concerned with the time perspective.
Clients usually are confused about their time perspective. They are not able to see the present as
logically arising from the past or the present affecting the future. Naturally they appear baffled as
they are unable to explain to themselves the ‘how’ and ‘why’ of things and usually come to grief.
Stage VII: This stage is one of developing the awareness of the counsellee. A number of counselors
and psychotherapists stress the importance of helping the client gain insight into himself as well as
insight into the world around him. This term, ‘insight’, is usually used synonymously with awareness.
psychoanalytic therapy, for instance, aims at providing insight into one’s conflicts, repressions and
inhibitions and when once these are seen in their true perspective, they cease to be painful. London
(1964) is not quite in favour of this view, namely, that symptoms disappear with self-knowledge,
that is, when insight or awareness is obtained. He favours the behavioural approach which stresses
the importance of action. However, there is no gainsaying the fact that the developing of awareness
is of prime importance. Ellis (1962) uses the terms intellectual and emotional insights. An intellectual
insight, that is, a rational understanding, is a prelude or necessary condition for emotional insight.
For instance, a person experiences acute fear at the sight of a supposed snake. When he realizes that
the object is not a snake but only a rope (intellectual insight) he sees the meaninglessness of his fear.
In the psychotherapeutic process the importance of awareness cannot be over-emphasized. There is
another sense in which awareness is used. It can refer to the awareness of goals—the direction in
which the self is to reach out or move forward.

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